Cloud Robotics Will Lead to General-Purpose Robots, Says Toyota’s Kuffner

Toyota Research Institute CTO James Kuffner said at RoboBusiness that cloud robotics, improving sensors, and strategic partnerships will lead not only to safer cars, but also to general-purpose robots.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Thanks to cloud robotics, both autonomous vehicles and robots should be able to learn from one another and become more intelligent collectively, said James Kuffner, chief technology officer at the Toyota Research Institute.

“We’re developing technology for automotive safety and robotics,” Kuffner said. “We’re also looking at helping the aging societies of Japan and elsewhere.”

He described progress in artificial intelligence, sensors, manipulation, and cloud computing as following historical patterns and enabling safer, cheaper, and more reliable devices.

Cloud robotics to be more agile, autonomous

“When are we going to have an intelligent robot personal assistant?” asked TRI’s James Kuffner.

“In the next 50 years, we’ll see robot intelligence be useful beyond factory automation,” Kuffner said. “Autonomy is important in logistics, in the home, and for maintaining the quality of life for aging in place.”

“Search-based AI,” such as Google’s AlphaGo and route-planning algorithms for robots, are important steps toward autonomy, he said.

“Planning dynamic actions isn’t just for bipeds; it includes a compound motion such as a leap and jump for quadruped robots,” Kuffner said.

“The big question is, ‘When are we going to have an intelligent robot personal assistant?'” he asked. “Three things are holding that back: capability, cost — but sensor technology is rapidly progressing, as well as safety and reliability.”

Overcoming obstacles by moving to the cloud

“In teleoperation, humans provide a ‘remote brain’ for robots,” Kuffner explained. “We can now move that intelligence instead to the cloud.”

“Cloud robotics enables cheaper, lighter, and smarter robots,” he said. “My four kids have spilled drinks many times, and I wish I could have transferred the knowledge between their brains instead of waiting for each one to learn in turn.”

“Big data and machine learning will usher in a new era of advancing robot and vehicle autonomy,” Kuffner added. “Thanks to the cloud, small companies can access modern compute and data-storage resources.”

It’s not yet possible to include all the machine-learning capacity desired within a robot or an autonomous vehicle, but smartphones and the cloud “open possibilities,” he said.

“Smartphones turn over every 18 months, and they include everything you need for a robot — IMU [inertial motion unit], GPS, 3G, Wi-Fi antennas, camera on a chip, and storage,” Kuffner said. “With ‘Build Your Own Cellbot,’ we made it easy to program and hack robots.”

“Who would have thought that you could stream video to phones?” he said. “Moore’s Law pales in comparison to improvements in wireless broadband speed. That opens possibilities for cloud robotics.”

TRI readies HSR for elder care

“Toyota’s Human Support Robot is built to be flexible as a mobile manipulator, with omnidirectional movement,” Kuffner said. “The human support robot also has a ROS navigational stack and API [application programming interface].”

The Human Support Robot (HSR) also has a telescoping body and large workspace reach, and its arm is designed to be compliant for safety, like many current collaborative robots.

“Our team is working to make the team safe and reliable,” Kuffner said. “Its expandable sensor suite includes an IMU sensor and a laser range sensor.”

The HSR’s manipulators include a suction gripper and a wide-angle claw. In the video Kuffner shared at RoboBusiness, the simple user interface had a red button/dial.

“It’s lightweight and small, capable of doing many tasks in the home, such as opening a door, picking up an object from the floor, and getting a drink,” he said.

HSR includes several power and data ports and currently requires magnetic tape to mark boundaries.

Service robots coming soon, thanks to sensors

“How soon will we have such robots?” asked Jeff Burnstein, president of the Robotic Industries Association and the Association for Advancing Automation. He recently testified to Congress about robotics.

“I’m an optimist — I think in the next five to 10 years,” Kuffner responded. “It’s already starting to happen. I’m really excited by sensor technology.”

“Back in the 1980s and ’90s, we had sonar, then GPS helped keep robots from getting lost, then lasers for indoor use,” he said. “For digital cameras, within 10 years, we’ve gone to having a camera on a chip; the only thing we couldn’t reduce is the lens.”

“No matter how good your logic and planning are, if you have poor perception, you’ll still have problems,” Kuffner said. “Machine learning used to be hard, but it’s now going open source. Now we just need good data.”

Open standards and partnerships

Toyota is betting on its support of open source programming and strategic partnerships to build its market and cloud robotics capabilities.

Eugene Demaitre is senior editor for Robotics Business Review. Prior to joining EH Publishing in the Boston area, he worked as an editor at BNA, Computerworld, and TechTarget. Demaitre has a master's degree in international affairs from the George Washington University.